Bufonidae 



It is estimated that about one per cent of a toad's entire food 

 consists of earthworms. This one per cent, compared with the 

 sixteen per cent of cutworms, nine per cent of tent caterpillars, 

 and nineteen per cent of weevils and other injurious beetles, gives 

 a very convincing ratio as regards the toad's relation to valuable 

 workers in nature and to destructive ones. 



In addition to his practical value in the protection of the gar- 

 den, the toad is of interest to us from quite another standpoint. 

 The beauty of the flower and the song of the bird make a direct 

 appeal to us. However, there is a beauty other than that of 

 colour, form or sound. There is a deeper beauty that grows out 

 of the relation of one thing to another. This beauty makes an 

 especial appeal to us when it concerns living forms, involving as 

 it does an understanding of the life of a creature in its home and 

 in contest with its enemies. This beauty of relation includes not 

 only harmony, but the discord that by contrast makes the sur- 

 rounding harmony more beautiful. It involves not only that 

 which is commonly called beautiful and peaceful, but also the 

 fearful and the wonderful, and probably the tragic. It considers 

 not only the individual or even the race, but the universe of indi- 

 viduals and races in the great balance of life. 



Considered in this light, the toad, in its perfect adaptation to 

 the needs of life, becomes one of the most interesting of creatures, 

 and the beauty of use behind each element in its appearance and 

 its^actions brings a revelation to the thinking mind. 



Its very ugliness becomes attractive when we realise that 

 this ugliness has gradually come about through thousands of 

 generations of struggle against enemies and adverse conditions; 

 that every ancestor not fitted by its every point of structure 

 and by every habit of life to escape its foes and to procure food 

 in plenty, was weeded out of the ranks by those very foes or 

 because of that very lack. And now at last the survivor of the 

 long line of life, our common toad, is one of the most protected 

 and the best adapted to its needs of all our animals. 



Its dull brown skin, rough with warts of all sizes and shapes, 

 is so like the soil of garden or of field (Fig. 61) that an enemy 

 passes without suspecting that a toad is near. The toad is the 

 more easily passed by because he " lies low," quite motionless 

 with chin touching the ground and body flattened as much as 

 possible. 



86 



